Sinn Féin - On Your Side

Sinn Féin MEP and member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee
of the European Parliament Lynn Boylan has slammed Labour’s use of a JJ
Rhatigan site to launch its affordable housing scheme.

“Labour’s decision to use a JJ Rhatigan site to launch its affordable
housing scheme highlights just how far Labour have shifted away from being the
party of the working person.

In 2014 building contractor JJ Rhatigans was exposed for using a
complex web of self-employment contracts and sub contracts that resulted in
workers being paid €5 per hour on a publicly funded building project. The
use of these so called ‘sub-contracts’ deprived workers of their social
protection rights while simultaneously allowing the company off the hook in
terms of PRSI payments.

The workers and Unite Trade union were vindicated when the Labour Court
ruled that the workers should be compensated as their rights had been
breached. Labour Party Leader Joan Burton’s own department found that the
company owed PRSI as the workers had been employed by Rhatigan.

Ms Boylan added:

“For Labour Ministers Alan Kelly
and Jan O’Sullivan to select a Rhatigan site to launch their affordable housing
scheme is lending legitimacy to the actions of this company.

How can Labour purport to be standing up for workers’ rights when the
actions of companies like this actually drive down working conditions.

This month in the European Parliament, MEPs called for measures to be
taken to deal with undeclared work including bogus self-employment. Bogus self-employment is a major problem in
Ireland, especially in the construction industry and an ICTU report released in
December stated that since 2007 €640bn has been lost to the Irish Exchequer in
bogus self-employment.”